carol – Page 3 – cluckeyo's blog

Fighting Back on Tough Days!

At 7:00 this evening, I had only 50 calories left for my day. That’s not good, because I usually have about 500 left at that time of day. But I was busy at 7:00, so it really wasn’t a big deal. The problem came around 10:00 pm, at which time I am accustomed to sitting down to a nice, late supper. I knew it was going to happen, and sure enough, it did.

There are several good things to eat in our house right now. We have zucchini bread, Fritoes and bean dip, pimento cheese and Wheat Thins, Sunchips,… to name a few. When I have the calories to spare, I Iike to include a couple of things off that list, but tonight I had nothing!! And I was seriously considering that zucchini bread. After all, i was probably going to blow it, anyway! Then I thought about how I have stuck my neck out pretty far on this whole calorie counting thing, and that gave me a little desire to try harder. I guess accountability is a good thing!

Instead of blowing it, I decided to work on this Calorie Crusader email, which is kind of like journaling, it helps me a lot! I usually write it on Friday mornings, but I thought now would be a good time to get busy doing something, since I am not extremely tired at the moment.

First, I looked over my notes that I have accumulated throughout the week. Then, I sat down at my computer with a bottle of cold water and 3 slices of Oscar Meyer boiled ham. That’s 70 calories worth of ham. And the reason is, I have noticed that pure protein not only makes me feel better when I am so hungry that I feel kind of sick, but it also kills unwanted cravings. So I ate the ham, and I am sipping on the water as I write this. I can still have fruits and veges tonight too, because I never count those. I now feel like I am out of the woods!! I was just having a pity party, I guess.

You wouldn’t believe how many times in the past I have “chosen the zucchini bread”. And then the chips and everything else would follow, because, “oh well”! That’s the wrong attitude and I call it a “diet mentality”. Fighting through this evening has given me a fresh focus on my goal. And my goal is, to make a permanent place for calorie counting in my life! So it’s good to be learning some tricks that work.

cluckeyo.com

Creepy October

I suppose it is fitting, that October would go this way. It has truly been creepy so far! The disasters began right at the beginning of the month,…

It is my custom to walk down to Mom and Dad’s house each evening and tend to their needs before bed. This night was no different. We took care of the meds, the kitchen, caught up on the events of the day, said our “i love you’s” and then I went on back home.

At this point, I will add that Glenn and I live in an old school building. It’s enormous and sits on a very large and deep, pier and beam foundation. Here and there, at the ground level of the bricks, there are little vent areas where you can observe underneath. When my Dad bought this building, he turned some of the classrooms into living spaces. He crawled under the building and put down all the pipe for the plumbing himself, and it held up for a long time. But this is 45 years later, …

So, I had walked home from Mom and Dad’s that evening. And as I passed by the vent area in the bricks, I could hear a gushing of water coming from underneath the building, obviously a busted pipe. We don’t know how long it had been like that, could have been days, we haven’t got the water bill yet. Glenn went out to turn off the cut-off, but the water still poured. He turned things off at the meter and the water still poured. Finally he turned off the hot water heater and that stopped it. When he went down under the next morning, he found things extremely wet. So he put several fans down there to dry things out. It turned out to be a major plumbing job, replacing old, worn out pipes. The whole thing really scared me. I was worried about the foundation, but I guess it’s ok. We still have the fans blowing down there, 2 weeks later.

So we got past that disaster. Then last night, as I was leaving out to go to Mom and Dad’s, there was a rattlesnake on our porch steps. Not a real big one, about 15 inches long. But they say those are the most dangerous! Glenn got a shovel and chopped it’s head off. It’s still out there, the ants are eating it. We got past that.

Tonight, I was driving home from a Master Gardener meeting, about 9:00 pm. I had just entered a stretch of road that was very curvy when my tire blew out, in the pitch dark middle of nowhere! I got out my phone, no service. Looked around, no houses that I could see. Talk about creepy! Well, thank goodness, after an uncomfortable 10 minutes or so, 2 bars of service showed up and I was able to get through to Glenn! He came really fast in Dad’s truck and put on the spare. Glenn saves my life on a regular basis. Just before he was going to follow me home, I said to him, “Did you know that there is a garden trailer hooked to the back of the truck”? He had not noticed. So anyway, we got into our vehicles and took off down the dark road.

After a few minutes of driving, I noticed that he was no longer close behind me, but way back there, and appeared to be stopped, so I turned around and went back. He said the trailer had broken and sent me up the road to see if I could find any parts strung out on the highway, about a 10 mile round trip. As for Glenn, the back of the truck was full of stuff, and besides, it was too heavy anyway, so he had no choice but to drive home going about 5 miles an hour, dragging a trailer with no axel.

So anyway, how’s your October going?

cluckeyo.com

A Fish Story

written for Father’s Day 2015

When I was in my early 40’s, and after my world had turned upside down, I found myself living with Mom and Dad again. They had welcomed me home with open arms, and never once complained. But it seems like, as old as I was, the whole situation put them in the position of having to raise me all over again! So once again, Dad was boss!!

…One day, after a deluge of rain had fallen the night before, Dad came to me and said, “put on your rubber boots, i need your help”. I pulled them on, we went out and drew up buckets of water and put them on the golf cart. Then he drove me out to the large area where the pond had gone out way beyond it’s banks. The water had already receded somewhat but everything was still quite wet. And there were puddles, little and big, everywhere we looked. He showed me that in these puddles were little fish, up to 6 inches long, that had gotten out of the pond and had become trapped after the water had gone back down. He reached down and began picking up the fish and putting them in the buckets. They were still alive! So, that’s what we did that day! Picked up fish, put them in the buckets. Then when a bucket got full, we took it to the pond and let them go.

We did that for hours… 🙂 My Dad, the naturalist! A great memory I will always treasure!! I love you Dad, Happy Father’s Day! 🙂

Calorie Counting and…

An Important Calorie Counting Tool

Hope y’all are having a good week!! It has gone pretty well for me. The plumbing disaster is resolved, now. My mom had her 88th birthday and we had a family party. That presented some challenges but I came through it ok and actually lost weight this week.

For the party, my sister brought everyone a hamburger from Dairy Queen and potato salad and Tres Leche cake from HEB. I partook in all of it and planned to not eat anything else that day, hoping not to go over too far.

After I got home, it occurred to me that Dairy Queen would have their nutrition posted online. So I googled “dairy queen hunger buster nutrition”. It took me right to a nutrition page for everything on the dairy queen menu. So I did get my proper count on that. HEB did not have the nutrition info on the cake box. I googled that too, “HEB tres leche cake calories”. Again, it showed me right away, what I needed to see. I googled “HEB mustard potato salad”. 3 for 3, I got all the information I needed. Very easily, I might add. It turns out that I did not go over on calories, but it was close, the rest of the day I just ate vegetables and drank tea. Woke up the next morning, and the scale showed a loss!! Calorie counting with google is awesome!!

Type the word, “egg” in the address bar, and right on the search page, google has placed some wonderful, reliable nutrition facts all about the egg. Including the calorie count. Type “apple”, “avocado”, “cheese”, “milk”, “butter”, “sugar”, “beef”, “rice”, …. Any natural food will give you a similar result in google. Fabulous help for calorie counting. Google was able to help me get through Mom’s party and I use it daily to look up one food or another.

cluckeyo.com

Staying Focused

In times of stress, it is difficult for me to stay focused on calorie counting. I may get in a hurry and not count my calories, or not weigh or measure my amounts. I may crave foods that tend to eat up my calorie allowance too quickly. That’s kind of how the last couple of days have gone. I believe however, that taking a day off from calorie counting, really is not a terrible calorie counting problem.

What I do think though, is that it is important to get right back with it. I can think of all the many diets I have ever tried, and if I ever got off the diet, that was pretty much the end of that diet. But I am taking another approach here. I am learning how to live realistically with calorie counting.

There are always going to be stressers in life. So yeah, I might take a day off from calorie counting. But the important thing is that I get back with it right away. And try, try not to get off track very often!! Since this is a lifestyle change and not a temporary diet, I have decided that I may not be an “A” student at this every day. some days I may be a “C” student. I’m still going to graduate, though!!

cluckeyo.com

Healthy Feet

I just figured out something that works really good for me and might work good for you too. At this juncture, with my weight being what it is and just with being older, I am unable to clean my feet very well. And they get really dirty sometimes. So it occurred to me that a dish brush might work well for that. I had an extra and I tried it just now. It helped a lot . Did an excellent job!! This one I got at Wal-Mart. It is white with blue and white bristles and a long handle. Kind of a medium soft bristle. It did the trick and I am sitting here staring at my nice clean feet. Which I have not been able to do in a long time. Hope this will be a help to you.

cluckeyo.com

beginnings…

I like to journal. For years, I have put them in spiral notebooks. And when I fill one up, I just throw it away. Folks have been telling me that I need to save them. But seriously, it would be a mountain of paper! So I thought I would try out blogging. See how it goes.

I like to stay busy. Right now I am building 3 websites and learning a new programming language, operating my cottage kitchen, progressing towards the opening of our store, running a household, trying to lose weight, and last but not least, taking care of my elderly parents. This kind of keeps things fresh, as I change from task to task many times each day.

I want to write about life, as it is around here with me. I want a record of things. And I would love to share it with others.

I love life! And there is not a single other one that I would rather be living more, than mine.

cluckeyo.com